Dump the Toxins: Homemade Clinging Toilet Bowl Cleaner

My posts may contain affiliate links. If you buy something through one of those links, you won't pay more but we will receive a small commission. That helps keep the blog up and the free recipes coming. Thanks!
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

For a long time, toilet bowl cleaner was the only commercially-produced cleaner I consistently purchased. Because I have a little boy and because the bathroom can be quite a mess, I always just bought one instead of even thinking to look about making my own.

Recently, I found a natural toilet bowl cleaner that was on sale that I knew had been reviewed on another green blog and gotten a thumbs up. I just happened to turn it over and look at the ingredients on the back.

Water, acid, acid, yet more acid, thickener and something to make it cling to the sides of the bowl.

Seriously? That’s it??

Yes, apparently so. And just let me say that I was more than a little insulted that a company has been charging $5 a bottle for such super-cheap and easily available ingredients.

I’ve got water, that’s cheap and easy. I’ve got acid in the form of vinegar, that’s also cheap and easy. Xantham gum is to thicken and glycerine is for cling. Is that really necessary?

So I decided to try an experiment. Every night before bed, I’d flush the toilet and then pour in a little vinegar, swish it around and allow it to sit overnight. Then finish cleaning the toilet the next morning

It’s been six months, and so far I haven’t had to go back to a commercial cleaner in order to remove a ring or clean any other stubborn spots.

But I Want to Scrub…

HOWEVER, for those of you who do need some scrubbing action to feel like the toilet is completely clean, I’ve found that a little borax or baking soda in a shaker jar sprinkled on the walls and then brushed will work with no problems.

… and I Prefer Cling

You don’t think it’s clean unless blue gel is glued to the walls for ten minutes? OK, I get it. So here’s how you can make it yourself. And if you’re really desperate, you can dye it blue, too.

Homemade Toilet Bowl Cleaner
From CookingTF.com

1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp glycerin
1 cup water
1/2 cup white vinegar

In a blender, combine all ingredients and blend until combined. I promise you, it does cling well enough to clean.

But Does It Work?

I decided to not subject you to before and after pictures, since this is a food blog. However, with my level of water hardness, three toilets in the house and two children including one little boy, it has not only worked, it has worked well.

I had one friend with very hard water try out this recipe. She wasn’t able to use it to get a really bad toilet back to visibly pristine, BUT once she had used a commercial cleaner specifically meant to remove the mineral staining to get it cleaned up, daily or every-other-day use of this cleaner did keep it clean. She’s been using it for three weeks and she hasn’t had to return to a commercial product yet.

So, worse case scinario, if you don’t clean your toilet for a week and you have hard water, you might have to use a commercial cleaner to get it back to baseline then you can go back to the natural cleaners. Either way, this will save you money if you only use it when you don’t have a large amount of visible grime clinging to the walls.

Total yearly savings: $35.52 if you go through one bottle of toilet bowl cleaner a month.

And If I Just Use the Vinegar?

Vinegar- $3.10 for 2 gallons = $6.20 for four gallons of vinegar a year

Total yearly savings: $35.80 a year if you were going through one bottle of toilet bowl cleaner a month.

Added Bonus

As an added bonus, you can now turn this daily chore over to an older child, because you no longer have to worry about the chemicals they could be exposed to. Every morning, whoever potties last flushes the toilet and pours in the mixture. Later, go behind them and swish and flush again to make sure it’s clean and done. However, the chore could be turned over to an older child completely with just periodic inspection by mom.

Yet Another Added Bonus

I grew up in a household with good water- so long as we cleaned the toilets once a week, everything was fine. Then I moved away from that nice, soft water and I found out that many people aren’t that lucky.

I’ve found that so long as we do a quick swish and swipe every day or every other day using the vinegar or the homemade toilet bowl cleaner above, I don’t have to break out the gloves and a brush. To me, that’s a good trade-off. I’m happy with ANY remedy that doesn’t require scrubbing a toilet with gloves and a pumice stone. To me, that’s worth the couple of minutes a day and $5-7 a year for the homemade cleaner.

I'm KerryAnn Foster, a crazy vibrant Jesus Freak with a heart full of hope. I'm not afraid to love on the least of these or get my hands dirty. This blog is my journey from ineffective, uptight, obese wallflower to a woman on fire for God and living the most vibrant, passionate life possible!

I live in the mountains of Western North Carolina with my husband, Jeff, and our two teens. I blog about self-confidence, health and home, homeschooling and living a vibrant, wide-open Jesus-centered lifestyle. I have over seventeen years of real food, natural lifestyle and health experience. We have homeschooled our children since birth and both Jeff and I run home-based businesses. We're crazy, we know it, and we love every second of it!

Reader Interactions

Comments

My Mother in law taught me to train the boys to clean the toilets (actually their father to) because there will be very little mess when they have to clean area! Otherwise the young fellas think it’s funny to have to make someone else do it. From age 6 on they took their turn cleaning.

No, vinegar will not kill them unless you’re dumping gallons down the drain at a time, enough to acidify the pH in your septic tank, and that would take a LOT of vinegar! Small amounts of vinegar are completely acceptable.

We have quite hard water and vinegar overnight usually does the trick. If it has been a long stretch between cleanings a pumice stick takes off mineral scale with just a little elbow grease. No way am I going to EVER buy toxic chemical cleaners to clean anything. Besides the assault on my septic system it’s also my dollars helping to support a corporate system of profits above people and unethical practices. Nope. Not gettin’ my dollars.

I’d like to try the recipe you recommended, but how do you apply it? I don’t have an old toilet bowl cleaner container to put it in, and I’d rather not have to go out and buy a commercially prepared cocktail just for the bottle in which to put my own mix. Do you have any suggestions on how to apply the cling recipe to the sides of the bowl without a commercial application bottle? Thanks!

Primary Sidebar

Search this website

Meet KerryAnn

I'm KerryAnn Foster, a crazy vibrant Jesus Freak with a heart full of hope. I'm not afraid to love on the least of these or get my hands dirty. This blog is my journey from ineffective, uptight, obese wallflower to a woman on fire for God and living the most vibrant, passionate life possible!

I live in the mountains of Western North Carolina with my husband, Jeff, and our two teens. I blog about self-confidence, health and home, homeschooling and living a vibrant, wide-open Jesus-centered lifestyle. I have over seventeen years of real food, natural lifestyle and health experience. We have homeschooled our children since birth and both Jeff and I run home-based businesses. We're crazy, we know it, and we love every second of it!

Recent Posts

Ads

Ads

Ads

Ads

Archive

Archive

Footer

Disclaimer

We make a good faith effort to keep up-to-date on the allergen content status of products. However, product formulations change frequently. Always check product labels for the most recent ingredient information and call the company if you have any questions as to the gluten content of a product.

Statements on this website have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Products and/or information are not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease. Readers are advised to do their own research and make decisions in partnership with your health care provider. If you are pregnant, nursing, have a medical condition or are taking any medication, please consult your physician. Nothing you read here should be relied upon to determine dietary changes, a medical diagnosis or courses of treatment.

About Intentionally Domestic

The information contained on Intentionally Domestic is meant for educational and informational purposes only. We are neither doctors nor dietitians. We do not dispense advice on curing or treating any health ailment or disease. Please consult your health care provider before following any information on this site.